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The M3 Project 256 Challenge

It’s good to do something different in the winter. A change is as good as a rest, as they say. Unless the ‘change’ is about as restful as running 256 miles in a month, that is.

It sounded like a good idea until I thought about it properly, but that was before I thought about what December’s running challenge actually entails.

On the 1st of December I’ll run 1 mile. On the 2nd I’ll run 2 miles. This will continue until I run 16 miles on the 16th December, when the mileage will decrease each day (so 15 miles on the 17th), ending with 1 mile on New Year’s Eve.

The two middle weeks look quite tough and I’ve never been out for a run on Christmas Day (that one’s a 7 miler).

To put things further into context, 256 miles is over 30 miles further than my total running distance in 2015. It’s my poor toenails I feel sorry for.

It was my mate Alan’s idea. Alan works for the M3 Project – a local charity that provides vital housing support for young people in the area and along with Dave Haygarth and Dean Pointer we’ll be raising funds and awareness for them.

Salient points:

Under 25s now represent half the people in homeless accommodation.

Young people are now the group most likely to be living in poverty

Recent figures from 2015 indicate that on any ONE night in the UK, 35,000 young people are in homeless accommodation and that is without the hidden homeless…

Hidden homelessness involves young people sleeping rough or sofa surfing, most of whom will not be in touch with services or receiving support around their homelessness. This figure is estimated by Centrepoint to be nearly 10 times higher than the ‘known’ homeless levels, at just under 300,000 on any ONE night in the UK.

Please think about how you can help, be that sharing, funding, or whatever.

I’ll be posting updates on here, on Strava and the usual social media channels as December plods on, plus there will be news appearing on the M3 website. There will be no escape from me begging for donations. You can donate here